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10
The country’s winner-take-all politics has created an
elaborate network of political patronage in which party
loyalists and supporters are rewarded for their allegiance.
Patron-client relationships are particularly relied upon
by parliamentarians and municipal and district political
appointees in maintaining power, notwithstanding ongoing
efforts to decentralize governance. The strength of
these relationships is such that at times formal rules are
mostly disregarded; informal ties are more important than
formal ones, creating opportunities for corruption and the
infiltration of organized crime. Bureaucracies run in parallel
to patronage networks that fuel corruption and undermine
administrative transparency and accountability. Despite
anti-corruption efforts, petty and grand corruption is
endemic in Ghana’s civil service and among sections of its
political elite.
The important number of high-level officials and midand
low-level cadres that have been found to be involved
in organized crime in Ghana over the past decade,
particularly drug trafficking and money laundering,
indicates deep structural challenges and indications that
crime is also being used in support of the political process.
While t<strong>here</strong> have been positive results in investigating and
prosecuting different cases involving mid- to high-level
public officials implicated in drug–related offences, the
majority have gone unpunished, seriously undermining
the legitimacy of state institutions and providing limited
disincentives for citizens not to engage in illicit activity.
Like many countries struggling to deal with complex
challenges, Ghana lacks the requisite institutional
capacity and frameworks for responding to organized
crime. Institutions are constrained by inadequate
logistical, human and financial resources as well as deeply
entrenched patronage systems. Inter-agency coordination
is limited, while personnel of the judiciary and specialized
agencies lack the expertise for responding to the different
forms of organized crime that have emerged in the country.
Moreover, t<strong>here</strong> appears to be limited political appetite to
build strong checks and balances into the current systems
of governance – both formal and traditional - as a means
to delink them from organized crime. The latter will be
key to Ghana’s longer-term development perspectives.
Meanwhile, however, the country continues to serve as
a regional hub for planning and executing organized
criminal activity. 11
Efforts to counter organized crime in Ghana today are
generally focused on strengthening law enforcement
and are rarely linked to other core areas of support. Multipronged
strategic interventions that go beyond mere
law enforcement measures to ensure a focus on those
high-level targets that are in the strongest position to
corrupt and disrupt; ensuring vertical and horizontal
accountability measures; enhancing delivery of services in
strategic areas, and providing incentives for unemployed
youth. In addition, these measures will only be effective
if they seriously consider the duality in the Ghanaian
legal and governance systems, namely the existence
of the modern/formal state based on legal concepts
that are often viewed as alien to the Ghanaian way of
life alongside a powerful traditional/informal state that
embodies Ghanaian customs and traditions and wields
the allegiance of the populace. Traditional chiefs, elders
and family heads, queen-mothers, and opinion leaders
should be consulted and mobilized; and interventions
must be carefully tailored to reflect existing ethnic and
cultural norms. Such an approach is key to breaking the
growing relationship between organized crime, politics,
governance and society.
MOZAMBIQUE
In Mozambique, organized crime became entrenched
following the post-conflict transition, and, as in Jamaica and
Guyana, is closely tied to the political process and system.
Organized criminal activity in the country includes drug
trafficking, trafficking in counterfeit medication, human
trafficking, stolen vehicle trafficking, illicit exploitation of
natural resources and money laundering.
Organized crime first captured public attention in
Mozambique in the wake of the highly publicized
murders of two investigative journalists who had been
investigating the extent to which emerging economic and
political elites were implicated in banking sector-related
11. Francois Soudain, Coke en Stock, Jeune Afrique, 28 avril au 11 mai 2013 (No. 2729-2730)
NYU
CIC
Responding to the Impact of Organized Crime on Developing Countries